The Art of Indifference
by SRC
Summary: Raven centered. How does Raven truly deal with extra emotions? Is the price too high? First Teen Titan fic. Please RR.
1. Chapter one

Teen Titans: The Art of Indifference

By SRC

Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize.

The tea kettle whistled cheerfully and insistently, warning the young Titan that the water was at a gently rolling boil. Closing her eyes she allowed herself ten seconds of peace just listening to the comforting sound. Afterwards, she uncurled herself from the chair she had occupied and swiftly turned the burner off mid-whistle before it woke up the others.

Well Robin and Star, anyways.

Robin had trained himself to sleep like his name-sake, a bird; waking up by a slight draft or a squeaky floor board. He told her that sleeping lightly could save your life in certain situations. Robin once confided to Raven that he sometimes woke up 10-15 times a night.

Starfire was slightly different case. Raven knew, after a weekend of –not so careful- observation that Star could not tolerate, or didn't like, or maybe just wasn't used to Earth's idea of furniture; mattresses in particular. Although Star never uttered a single complaint, she would never sit for long periods of time on a chair or sofa. Raven didn't think that the other Titans had caught on to this. They probably just chalked it up to Starfire's somewhat high-strung personality.

When Raven had inquired about this to Star directly, ('Hey. Star, how long _is_ your attention span?) She had replied that her furniture poked and bit her, "like someone left forks in my covers of duvet!"

When Raven just stared at her with one eyebrow quirked, the pretty alien simply took her hand and led her friend into her room, like a child showing an adult something. There, she practically threw Raven on one side of the bed and then laid down next to her. After five passing minutes of both of them laying on their backs, staring at the ceiling, Raven turned her head to face Star's green eyes that sparkled with questions.

"Can you feel them?"

"No, nothing but this naucious feeling in my stomach from all these bright colors." It felt like a bed to Raven.

Star looked confused and sad, "How can you not feel them? They poke your back like bony fingers."

Another ten minutes later and Raven had helped strip Stars purple and pink bed of its sheets and multiple blankets until they mountained on the floor.

To make a long story short, Raven had concluded that what Star was actually feeling were the spring that supported the mattress.

"Oh joy, our very own princess and the pea." She had sarcastically mentioned to Robin after retelling her thirty minutes of insight with Starfire. Robin then mentioned something about Tamaran's gravity and after some minor research on the alien's planet, Raven realized that on Tamaran matter was less dense, and Raven imagined a mattress there was similar to sleeping on a cloud.

After that, Raven had gotten Robin to splurge for one of those springless mattresses for her. While Star was ecstatic and grateful as Raven knew she would be, Star would still wake up fairly easy and noise was always a factor. Apparently once you have slept on a cloud nothing else would cut it.

Cyborg was charging at night and would continue doing so until 7:38. Raven appreciated that little bit of stability in her life. Cyborg was the epitome of clockwork. At 7:45 he would stroll out from his "shower" smelling of icy aftershave, a smellthat seemed to deeply relax Raven, and crest mint toothpaste. Then, he would hangout in the kitchen until 8:30 usually with Raven and Star. After that he would sometimes go watch TV, or work on his baby, or pop in the training room to work out with Robin.

Beast Boy could sleep through the apocalypse.

Raven herself wasn't much of a sleeper these days. Not that it mattered much. Sleep wasn't really necessary for her sustenance anyways. As long as she had about three hours of rest a day, meditation filled in the gaps.

Besides, she liked being the first one up anyways.

* * *

AN: This is my first Teen Titans fan fiction. If the reviews are positive I just may type out the rest of what is written in my notebook.

Although I have only seen a few episodes of Teen Titans, it is safe to sayI am addicted. Raven is so much fun to write! I promise that this will have a plot, but it may take a few chapters. As they say, "Rome wasn't built in a day".

So with that said… Please review! If you don't review, there is a good chance I will develop a stutter. Puh-puh-puh-puh-lease don't do this to me!


	2. Chapter two

Teen Titans: The Art of Indifference

By SRC

Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize.

Raven liked to accomplish things at the newest hours of the day. An hour was devoted to cleaning. Thankless task including laundry, dishes, straitening up the common room, and making sure anything that had been damaged or destroyed or shattered that week was cleaned up and recorded on a list of items that needed to be replaced.

These were the tasks that the others didn't even know existed. In fact, she had a feeling that the teens thought a cleaning fairy came in and _magically _everything was spotless, like most teenagers thought. Sure, she grumbled about the others lack of cleaning skills, but truthfully she didn't mind doing these things for them. It made her feel useful, like she had purpose among her peers.

Robin was quite obviously the natural born leader of the group, maybe even the brains of the operation, although Raven thought that was being a bit to generous. He had the level head on his shoulder, most of the time, and all of the titans, Raven included, looked up to him with something akin to being star struck. And why not? He was patient, calm, and charismatic, the perfect leader for a bunch of kids.

Beast Boy. Oh god, Beast Boy. The biggest kid of them all.

But as annoying as Beast Boy was Raven knew he was basically what held the team together. Robin may have been the foundation, but Beast Boy was the glue.

The annoying, not funny, too sticky glue that stuck to everything glue, Raven thought, affectingly.

Fellow gamer to Cyborg and Robin's personal sidekick; He was the girlfriend to Starfire that Raven couldn't and wouldn't be. He was enough emotion for Raven and he combined and that was the type of person/friend the bubbly alien needed. Not Raven's biting tongue and monotonous demeanor.

Cyborg was the muscle. The muscle with the perfect pearly white, dazzling smile and sterling, charming personality. The second in command and the All-American good guy. Every girl had a crush on him and every guy wanted to be him. He was the big brother of the group. Always the first to compliment his Starfire and Raven for anything and everything. The charmer he was, Raven knew that, in her mind, no girl would ever be good enough for Cyborg; and Raven was hardly ever wrong.

Raven was probably the closest with Cyborg. Not that she was very close with anyone.

And last but absolutely not least was Starfire.

Starfire was like hearing your favorite song on the radio; when you hear it, you get giddy/excited and you just feel lucky that you heard it, no matter how many times you have heard it; it just gets better and better. That was Starfire. That was the best way to describe her; by the things she did and the wonderful emotions she illuminated.

Star also gave the best hugs. She hugged with her whole body, heart and soul. Her hugs could probably bring about world peace. Raven had only been hugged by Star a few times, but she had watched the alien give billions of hugs.

Her hugs were powerful.

Plus, she was a hot chick with superpowers. Raven felt like that really gave her an edge.

So to Raven, picking up dishes and folding everyone clothes and shopping was the least she could for these amazing people. They put up with so much; her bad attitude (scathing wit), her lack of control of her powers (Random combustion of personal possessions), and her bad luck (Malchior, The whole fear repression thing, the list is really endless.).

* * *

Notes:

I don't own anything you recognize.

Of course we, as the viewers, know that Raven is appreciated for who she is, I feel like she would feel the need to make it up to them.

Dialogue and more of Raven's biting wit in the next chapter.

So, the first thing I would like to say is, don't expect an update every three days. I'm on spring break right now, so I had a lot of time to formulate plot and text and such. Maybe once a week depending on my schedule.

No plot yet, I know. But I swear it will have a plot. A great plot, even. I was reading a teen titans message board/forum yesterday and was totally re-inspired by something someone said. But I don't want to give anything away. :smirk:

Thank you to all reviewers:

_Gladdecease – Thanks for the wonderful review! I'm really glad that someone else agrees with me, that it isn't always a good thing to jump right into the plot. I love introductions and description so this works well._

_Canislupis89 – Haha. "Nauseous". That's how you spell it. I am the worst speller in the world. I was the kid who was always out first in a spelling bee. Thank god for spell check! But as it turns out, I added that sentence in during the preview editing process in so no spell check function._

_As for the couples thing: I doubt it will be RaeRob even though I enjoy reading them. To be perfectly honest, I am not a fan of inter house relationships. I feel like they are a family, brothers and sisters. Why screw that up with romance? But I refuse to write any specific couple out of the picture entirely. :grin:_

_Sapphire – Thank you for your kind review. It means a lot to me, that you think I keep the characters… in character._

_Moo – Thank you! I'm sure your vocabulary is fine. Hope this is soon enough for you!_

_Ace Grey Manx – Wow. That means so much to me! Hope you enjoy this next little bit._

_Mysti-eyed – Thank you so much! Hope you like this next part!_

Please continue with the review and constructive criticism!


	3. Chapter three

Teen Titans: The Art of Indifference

By SRC

Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize.

Chapter 3

After the dishes were cleaned, dried, and neatly put in there assigned position, Raven moved along to the game room where she quickly set to work, throwing all of yesterdays garbage in a giant black trash bag. Cans were thrown into a tub just outside the mud room, and paper and cardboard products were squashed down in a cardboard box. Cyborg would take them over to the city recycling center when he and Beast Boy went food shopping in a few days.

When cleaning the Titans Tower, Raven had only a few goals in mind; create a walking path, so you didn't trip over something a break a leg or other appendage (long story), clean up any food that could be forgotten about until it started to decompose a week later and the smell would make the bravest hero cower with fear (gross story), and finally and most importantly; sterilize/quarantine. She may put up the front that she was unconcerned with how her fellow team mates lived, like slobs but it was all an act and she was thoroughly grossed out most of the time.

The closet germ-a-phobe was armed with a can of lemon scented Lysol disinfectant, a makeshift rag that was previously an old shirt of Beast Boys that he was going to throw away, and orange latex rubber cloves. She began to scrub viciously at all hard furniture in the room and spraying the disinfectant in the air. She worked until her arms were sore and she has acquired a slight sweat. Thirty minutes of methodically vigorous cleaning and the room smelled like a hospital, Raven deemed the room livable once again.

_Saving the Titans from one virus at a time_, Raven thought sarcastically.

After arranging the nine remotes on the coffee table in parallel lines, so Cyborg and Beast Boy wouldn't bitch about not finding them, the sullen girl collapsed on the sofa rejoining with her now room temperature herbal tea.

There was another reason to as why she liked to do chores, a deeper, more personal reason.

When she was doing something, anything, thinking about what she was going to do was that much harder. Focusing on a task as menial as dishes served to distract her enough to forget about the pain she would be looking forward to in the near future. It was something she had learned to live with each day, but facing it was always a challenge she backed away from.

It's been three days since her 16th birthday. She felt like she was stuck in the eye of the storm. She felt mellow and subdued, vaguely disjointed and scatterbrained which scared her to death. Because of her actions that day, she knew she would pay the price, higher than normally. It hummed through her veins and pulsed in her head.

But of course she couldn't be scared. That emotion was too strong.

So she just slumped deeper into the upholstered sofa cushions and allowed her eyelids to droop shut as she sipped her beverage of choice, trying not to think, _just focus on drinking the tea. _And she felt the caffeine seep into her blood.

To be perfectly honest she didn't particularly like tea. Like Robin, she was more of a coffee person. To her, the comparison between coffee and tea was no competition. Coffee was a warm-rich brown and tea was kind of a murky gray. It was not bad, but it didn't warm Raven's chilly soul the way coffee did. Coffee was an intimate friend and Tea was a distant acquaintance.

Yet this was the kind of balance Raven had to revolve her life around day in and day out. It was like being in purgatory; neither good nor bad; just ok. Except she had the ability to feel, but knew the reaps of it rewards and what it may cost her. She had indifference down to a science.

A sigh and a sip later and she daintily cradled the mug on her lap. Unconsciously, her tired self had reached a half meditative state and was currently comfortable there. So, if she gotten more than two hours of sleep last night, she probably would have heard Robins padded, yet calculated foot steps in the kitchen. And she may have registered the slamming cabinets and the opening and closing of kitchen drawers as well as the quiet sleepy sighs. And she definitely would have notice when, a few minutes later, the sinking pressure of the sofa cushion next to hers.

But after several minutes of relaxed silence, Robin's deep, sleepy, groggy voice pierced her bubble of peace.

"Are -you- slouching?" Robin asked with incredulity.

Raven snapped her eyelids open and bolted upwards, straightening her spine, each vertebrae popping and shifting into alignment, while the remaining contents in ceramic mug spilt down her pajama pants and onto her newly cleaned floor.

_Inhale…exhale_. Raven calmly thought to herself as she rolled her eyes upward.

After three deep breathes she turned her head sharply toward Robin and shot him a look that could strip paint off the wall.

…and that look lasted an impressive, oh, three seconds until she got a good look at Boy Wonder.

Starting from his face, his distinctive, spiky black hair was even more construed than normal. Behind his mask his eyes were still bleary and sleep filled. Sheet lines were creased down his face and neck and disappeared under his white, wife beater. A pair of light green flannel pajama pants with hundreds of miniature sheep all over them slung low on his hips, a wait band of Joe-Boxer could be seen an inch above them. And above that, a well toned abdominal cortex.

To give Raven credit, her jaw dropped, shell-shocked look only look was more fleeting than her original glare had been and she covered it well.

She quickly rose off the coach and headed over to the kitchen to retrieve a sponge.

Embarrassed by her previous reaction to Robin, she had to cover it with sarcasm, "Yes, Robin. You see, we can't all be graceful with the poise of a fairy." Deadpan.

Heh.

The fairy thing had started off with something Star had noticed and said with that naiveté of hers. "Robin! You are like a ballerina when you fight against villains!"

Needless to say Cyborg and Beast Boy had a field day with that one. And it wasn't long before he had the nickname of "Pansy" and "Twinkle Toes" from the duo.

Robin didn't share the joke.

Still half asleep, "But you're Raven! Queen of superiority complex, meditation guru. Slouching is just so out of character for… Hey! Did you call me a pansy?" Sleepy quickly transformed to annoyance.

"No. I would never compare you to a Pansy".

"Good, because I" –

"I compared you to a fairy. Pansy is Cyborg's pet name." Smirk. "Nice pants, by the way."

Now it was Robins turn to glare and he did so while stomping back into the kitchen, grabbing Ravens empty mug to place in the sink, grumbling something about a gift from Star and "smrgroffs" or something.

As soon as he was out of the room Raven dropped her hood on her navy blue hoodie to reveal a flushed face and a dazed expression on her face.

Robin often forgot that Raven was a girl; a hormonal teenage girl to boot. If Starfire was sitting in the room Robin always seemed to be modestly clothed. She didn't know how he dressed around the males of the group, nor did she want to.

Guys tended to be gross like that.

After cleaning up the spill she followed Robin path towards the kitchen where he sat slumped over the table rubbing sleep from his masked eyes with the back of his hand. Silently, wordlessly, Raven poured the boy a cup of black coffee, effectively continuing their morning routine, Raven with a book and Robin with the Jump City Times.

Tea. Check.

Calming down so she didn't blow something up. Check.

Cleaning. Check.

Self Reflection. Check.

Witty banter with Robin. Check.

The day was so normal she couldn't help but hope that maybe it wouldn't be so bad this time.

* * *

Notes:

This was the most I have ever written, but I hadn't updated in a few weeks. PLEASE REVIEW!

A plot begins to trickle out like the first few grains of sand from a timer.

I give Raven a lot of my own qualities. I don't know exactly why, but I think it has something to do with my idea of her not being "Goth" I hate labels but just someone who has to repress all of her real emotions.

Hope you enjoyed Robin and Ravens banter. We may not see Robin for a bit.

He has to go work out.

Star will always be pretty consistent within my story because I like her and I hate how she is often portrayed so out of character in Raven-centered fan fiction. Oh well. I guess that's why it's -fan- fiction, not Sam-fiction.

Haha.

Pun was intended.

Gladdecease – Thanks once again for the encouraging review! I'm so happy it seems like I am keeping her in character.

Ace Grey Manx – Oh. My. God. I love Seinfeld! However, there are a lot of stories out there that are a series of oneshots and I don't want to blend in with them.  
I strive to be eccentric.

Mysti-eyed – lol. I have always wondered that, so I made up my own idea. If I was Raven, and I blew everything up, I would feel required to replace it.

Swift – My mom actually was the one who used to scream at my brother and I when we would leave the house trashed, "There is no magical cleaning fairy …That's me!" Thanks for your review. I appreciate it.


End file.
